Beautiful pens from Namiki

Pilot Pen's premium line of writing instruments is sold under the Namiki brand. The barrels of fountain pens, rolling ball pens, ball point pens and mechanical pencils are embellished with intricate lacquered designs adorned with gold, silver and jewel tones.

Maki-e (pronounced mah-KEE-ay) is the centuries-old Japanese art of adorning lacquer ware by applying multiple layers of lacquer decorated with powders and flakes of gold, silver and colored pigments as well as thin slivers of abalone shell. The maki-e craftsman starts his work with a drawing of the intended composition. The design is transferred onto the prepared lacquer surface. The task of transforming an outline drawing into a complex decoration of sprinkled powders is complex, lengthy and requires years of study and practice.

For the Namiki Collections, skilled Japanese artisans use the finest materials to create a line of writing instruments that look beautiful and perform flawlessly. They introduce Maki-e lacquering, a centuries-old technique in which multi-layered patterns are drawn on the barrel and cap with urushi - sap from Japanese lacquer trees. The hand-painted designs richly interpret scenes of nature in precious metals and lavishly colored pigments.